A Fleeting Moment

[W. Gray]

Most folks probably would not recognize the name David Rice Atchison.

One of his claims to fame was that the town of Atchison, Kansas, was named after him. There is also an Atchison County in both Missouri and Kansas named after him.

He has a bigger claim to fame, however.

He was President of the United States.

Kermit might like to know he was born in Frogtown, Kentucky, (that town now has another name) but immigrated to Missouri. He is not a Kansan.

A statue in front of the Clinton County courthouse in Plattsburg, Missouri, honors his accomplishment.

During the 1950s, the Hallmark Hall of Fame had a program showing his rise to power. The telecast was appropriately titled "President for a Day." I watched the program but the only thing I remember is the title.

Citizens elected Zachary Taylor to replace James K Polk in 1848 and the 1849 inauguration called for a Sunday noon swearing in. However, Taylor was religious and refused to swear on the Sabbath. Atchison as the President Pro Tempore of the Senate was appointed as President until Monday when Taylor could be sworn in.

Atchison was awakened at 3:00 am on Sunday morning and advised he was President of the United States until noon of the following Monday. Atchison always said he slept in on that Sunday because of lengthy Senate business.

A museum claiming to be the smallest presidential library in the U.S. is at the Atchison County Historical Museum in Atchison, Kansas. His grave marker in a Plattsburg, Missouri, cemetery reads "President of the United States for One Day."

[kdfrawg]

I did know that story, but mainly because of the Frogtown connection. I ran across it while searching for something else entirely. I am always happy that history is full of such wonderful quirks.

[Diane Amberg]

 We have a "frogtown crossing" at a RR track at Middletown Del.

[W. Gray]

I have somewhere in my files a small item on a frog invasion of Denver in the late nineteenth century.

These frogs apparently knowing what they were doing and where they were going came down the pike, literally, to Denver shoulder to shoulder in a column so many hundreds of feet wide and so many hundreds of feet long.

[kdfrawg]

Goodness gracious, that would be a LOT of frogs. Some religious texts speak of "plagues of frogs." This is the first one that I have heard of which may be verifiable. It sounds like just what you would need if you had just been invaded by grasshoppers.